Scroll down for a tutorial for those new to Electric Quilt 8 on drafting a modern Irish Chain quilt.
Tech Know Quilters Irish Chain Challenge
I challenged the Master's Group within Tech Know Quilters to design an Irish Chain quilt. Here were some of the early submissions.
A great group of quilts to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Tech Know Quilter's only opens enrollment to new members a few times a year. There will be an open enrollment at the end of this month to those that are on the wait list. So please sign up for the wait list if you are interested in receiving more information on the program.
Note that Tech Know Quilter's classes are all virtual and can be completed at your convenience from the comfort of your own home. Draft Your Own Modern Irish Chain Quilt
It can sometimes be a challenge to figure out how to take a very traditional block and make it modern. Here is my approach. This would be a great project for those just starting with Electric Quilt.
I then set the three blocks in an on point layout. Note that the setting triangles and corners used the second Clip and Flip option.
I then used Benartex' Geo Pop Collection by Christa Watson to recolor the quilt. Geo Pop is the free Fabric of the Month download that you can still download from Do You EQ.
This is a great beginner project for someone new to Electric Quilt 8. Please share your quilts in the Learning EQ Facebook Group.
Scroll down to see some new amazing quilts from Tech Know Quilter members as they share some of their favorite quilts completed in January.
From Electric Quilt to Cricut Design Space
I recently purchased a Cricut Maker and have been having fun learning how to use it. This week I watched a tutorial on using Print and Cut. With Print and Cut you can print an image on your home printer and then cut it out using a Cricut machine. The light bulb went on and I thought -- this is how we could feature those complex EQ8 designs that we will never get around to piecing.
Please tell me I am not the only one with a treasure trove of EQ projects that will never become a quilt or a wall hanging.
In this tutorial, I will share exactly how I modified and exported a design in EQ to make it cutting friendly. Then I will take you through setting up a project using Cricut Design Space along with the rest of the process to create the love to quilt design that would be suitable for putting on a canvas tote.
The font I used in the Love to Quilt design was Angelica Script Font. I obtained it from Creative Fabrica. This website offers a free font every day and this was one of the fonts they offered for free earlier this year. It is called a Modern Calligraphy Font.
If you are debating whether a Cricut is in your future, you can download a free copy of Design Space here and follow my process to create your own Love to Quilt design.
Tech Know Quilters Apply What They Learned in January
Tech Know Quilters is a membership of Electric Quilt 8 owners who are mastering Electric Quilt through online training. At the end of their January class, they were encouraged to apply what they learned during the month of January. We had a fair number of completed projects this month -- showing how they have moved from design to construction.
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Kathleen McCorkmick I was taking the calendar class. I have decided to print a copy of my current calendar on display for my computer. (print as pdf, then convert to jpg to bring into EQ) I like having my real calendar up in the background! This is one I made for the challenge, of Portland Head, ME.
Calendar Quilts
During January, I introduced a new class in which we drafted 12 different calendar quilts. Here are some of the blocks and quilts from the class.
Calendar Quilts Master Challenge
Tech Know Quilter's Masters members have been in Tech Know Quilters for at least 12 months. They are committed to expanding their use of EQ through design. Their challenge for January was to create their own calendar block or quilt.
Some Other Fun Designs
Tech Know Quilters will also post designs as they work through their monthly lessons. Some will follow the design exactly as laid out. Others will choose to exercise their creativity muscle and expand upon the lesson.
My current plans are to open enrollment to new members at the end of March. Invitations to join will be sent out to those on the wait list. Learn more about Tech Know Quilters and sign up for the wait list here,
Irish Eyes Sale
Last week, I shared drafting a postcard quilt that had a heart, in a heart, in a heart. If you would like to create this pattern for yourself, please check out the EQ8 tutorial in last weeks bog.
I mentioned I had purchased a couple of new items for foundation piecing and decided to try they out when constructing the postcard quilt.
Foundation Paper Comparison
When doing foundations, we need a base that has printed foundations that we will use as guidelines for sewing. The new product I tried was Foundation Stuff.
Here is a personal comparison of the three foundations I currently use. I printed out my Teeny Tiny Hearts foundations on all three. Carol Doaks Foundation Paper
This is the brand I have been using for the last five plus years. It goes through the printer without a problem and it is super easy to cut and to tear off. Of the brands I was comparing, it was the hardest to see through -- but newsprint will darken over time (and the paper was purchased a number of years ago). The biggest downside is that the paper can easily tear ahead of the removal process -- particularly when working with micro foundations.
The current price of the paper on Amazon Prime is $13.92 for 100 sheets. EQ Printables - Quilter's Newsprint
The EQ Printables newsprint was a little lighter than color than the Carol Doak's paper (and as a result a bit easier to see through). This could be because the paper is stored in a sealed bag which gives it less exposure to light and air.
It printed beautifully and appears to handle just like the Carol Doak's newsprint. It retails for $9.95 for 100 sheets on the EQ website (and on my website as well). This does not include shipping. Foundation Stuff
This is lightweight foundation material created by George & Virgia Siciliano. The cover notes the following. "Stabilizes fabric during stitching allowing for accurate seam lines. It is durable, transparent and does not stretch. Can be left in your project for added stability. It's washable & dry-cleanable. Can be marked with pen, iron-on transfers & rubber stamps. Will go through printers and copiers."
When doing my miniature heart block (with the first heart foundation being under 3/4"), I found there was no splitting of the foundation during the sewing process. I had set my stitches to 1.2 on my machine since I had seams that were less than 1/8" in length. Very impressive. It is a nice white material and is much easier to see through than the other two brands. It was soft -- as a result I would be comfortable leaving it in my projects. But it also seemed as easy to remove as the other brands. So leaving it in versus removal can be your choice. It did do a nice job of printing -- however, my paper was slightly wrinkled when I removed it from my printer. The wrinkles appear to have happened after the print as I was able to iron them out and did not notice an issue with distortion. I ran three different sheets through my Brother Laserjet printer with similar results. I would recommend testing this will your own printer. It retails on www.georgesiciliano.com for $15 for 50 sheets plus a $3 charge for shipping. So this is the most expensive of the options. My Conclusion
For most of my foundations, I will use the EQ Printables Quilter's Newsprint. The ease of running through the printer and the price point being the biggest advantages.
For minis, I will use Foundation Stuff, as I did appreciate that the foundation didn't fall apart during the pull-back, nor did it split when sewing my very small stitches. Sewing the Heart Foundation
While purchasing Foundation Stuff, I also saw that George Siciliano had a Triple-Duty Seam Allowance Guide. I was curious how it compared to the Add-A-Quarter and Add-an-Eighth tools from CM Tools. I typically use the Add-A-Quarter guide for all my foundation blocks and it is the tool I recommend in my foundation patterns. .
I will share my experience with the Triple-Duty Seam Allowance Guide (along with using Foundation Stuff) in my video for the week.
I had a few nightmares with uploading videos from my phone to my computer and needed to abandon the first video where I sewed the center of my heart. However, since the primary purpose of the video was to share how I use the Triple-Duty 8" Seam Allowance Guide, this should give you a good idea of the process.
I've now completed two postcards. These are really a lot of fun.
Free Foundation Pattern
Would you like a downloadable copy of the foundation for the Teeny Tiny Heart block? You can download it here.
Make sure to double check the sizing before using the foundations asprinters can distort pdfs. Two copies of the block are included on the page.
I received a lovely valentine card from my friend Sherry Perry this week. She foundation pieced a heart and sewed it to a postcard.
I've been admiring the card all week and thinking about creating my own postcard. I had just ordered a new kind of foundation paper along with a new tool for foundation piecing and I wanted to see how well they worked.
For my heart, I started with a design I did in the EQ8 Drawing Blocks book. If you have the book, the instructions for drafting the basic heart block as a simple foundation is on pages 59 and 60. There is only one section in this block which would make it easy to piece and it would nicely accommodate different sizes.
Then I started thinking about create a heart in a heart and came up with this variation. This one could be foundation pieced with two sections.
Then I expanded on the concept and created a triple heart block.
Then what about four hearts?
This one would wouldn't be easy to paper piece as designed -- but you could foundation piece the smallest section. And then create a separate foundation for the next size (with foundation one becoming the center square for the second foundation). Then foundation 2 (once completed) becomes the center square for foundation 3.
You you can just keep repeating the process and make that center smaller and smaller. So how small would you go?
Before deciding, I I needed to design my quilt (which is the size of a postcard). After playing a bit with the center size and border sizes (along with researching acceptable postcard sizes with USPS), I came up with the layout below.
The size of the postcard quilt is 5-1/4" x 4-1/4". The heart block size ended up being 2-3/4" x 2-3/4" After measuring, I realized the size of the center heart was slightly over 1/4". Yikes!
So I decided I needed to eliminate the center heart ( and go back to the triple heart. The center pieced center heart is now a whopping 3/4" x 3/4".
Learn how to draft the blocks as shown in this block and the quilt in my Electric Quilt 8 tutorial.
I will be sharing more on my construction process and observations on my new foundation piecing tools in a future post hopefully next week)..
EQ8 Drawing Blocks
The EQ8 Drawing Blocks book does a deep dive in drafting blocks in all the block worktable options. Included in the book is the foundation friendly heart block shown above.
Purchase a copy of the book from On Point Quilter for $5 off. The price has been adjusted in the store to reflect the sale price. I would be happy to autograph a copy of the book if you wish.
Price: (normally $29.95) On sale for $24.95 through February 29, 2020.
I love blocks and quilts comprised of all types of hearts. So I think we should celebrate Valentine's day all month.
In my video tutorial, you will learn how to trace the red heart and the elephant. And then use your creativity to modify the design and create your own small quilt.
Here is the quilt I created during the video.
Applique can be one of the more challenging skills to master in Electric Quilt. If you would like to become more skilled in developing your applique drafting skills, there is an entire chapter on Applique Drawing in my EQ8 Drawing Blocks book that has been published by Electric Quilt.
For this week only, purchase a copy of the book from On Point Quilter for $5 off. The price has been adjusted in the store to reflect the sale price. I would be happy to autograph a copy of the book if you wish.
Price: (normally $29.95) On sale for $24.95 through February 20, 2020.
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Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
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